


Stonesight

by wargoddess



Category: The Cloud Roads (Martha Wells)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-02
Updated: 2011-10-02
Packaged: 2017-10-24 06:13:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/259973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wargoddess/pseuds/wargoddess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of the first book, Stone contemplates Moon, and second chances.  Pointless, but I needed to get it off my chest; Stone's my favorite character in this great new fantasy series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stonesight

It was hard not to be amazed.

A consort, Stone realized, as he watched the boy pore over ancient, moldering texts that had been left behind by some extinct skyling race or another. The boy was a _consort_. After all Stone's searching, all the months wasted at Star Aster -- here, in the middle of nowhere, was exactly what he'd sought. Amazing.

Stone kept still, trusting the updraft to keep the boy from noticing his scent, taking the opportunity to taste the air himself and sift it for useful clues. No scent of Arbora or other Aeriat; maybe the boy's colony was far away. A traveler, like Stone himself -- though that was unusual for a consort so young. Most consorts his age should be busy at their home colonies, mating with the local queens and siring royal clutches. Perhaps this one was unclaimed? Stone stifled excitement. In larger colonies, unclaimed consorts were often bored, frustrated creatures, eager for adventure -- and easy to seduce away from home. Especially for the promise of an interested young queen.

Below, the boy made a sound of excitement as he found another text, this one containing pictures of the tentacled race that had once inhabited this sky island. He was in groundling form, but it was easy to imagine his tail flicking in excitement. Watching him, Stone found it hard not to like him immediately, as he'd never found another consort who enjoyed exploring and reading. Not until their elder years, anyhow.

He would have continued to watch, but then the boy tensed, putting the book down. Though there was no way for him to have caught Stone's scent, nevertheless suddenly he looked up, and his eyes went wide at the sight of Stone's silhouette. An instant later he was gone, darting off into the ruin, as if fleeing.

 _Good instincts,_ Stone thought, approvingly. Then the last of his scent wafted up, full of sharp bitter fear, and it occurred to him the boy _was_ fleeing. _What the?_

Puzzled, Stone went after him, climbing 'round the outside of the ruin at a point where he was likely to fly through. When the boy dived out -- still in groundling form, which caused Stone to miss his grab -- Stone saw it again: the boy's face was all eyes, and full of abject terror. Then he shifted and shot away.

The chase did not take long, and at the end of it, the boy escaped. It was strange; he fled as though he had never seen an elder consort before. As if he thought Stone wanted to eat him. Maybe he'd come from a very small colony, with no elders? Impossible to guess.

But it would be simple enough to catch him later. His scent was thick around the small groundling village Stone had noted in the valley, and odds were strong that he'd fled back there, for some reason. The boy was quick and clever, and a strong flyer. His shifted form had excellent conformation, lovely deep black coloring, lots of defensive spines and plenty of soft frills to please a queen. Even if he was already mated, there was a good chance his home colony might have a few more like him, with the same superb breeding. Little Jade deserved nothing but the best, after all.

So Stone settled in to wait.

***

It was hard not to be confused, once Stone figured out the truth.

The boy hadn't just stopped in the valley on the way to someplace else. He was _living_ there. With _groundlings_. _Sleeping with_ at least one of them, to judge by the whiff of scent Stone had managed to catch during a fly-by, which he'd risked in the dead of the night while the groundling village's lookout slept.

He couldn't fathom it. So he resolved to wait a few days more, in hopes of catching the boy long enough to talk to him and find out what in Fell-farts he thought he was doing.

But before Stone's patience ran out, something changed in the village below. From the sky-island, when the wind blew in his direction, he could hear shouts, see torches wave as night fell; the groundlings were riled about something. And then, the next day, they put the boy out.

Staked him out, more precisely, in a vargit feeding ground. Whatever welcome he'd apparently had among them, it had clearly worn out.

So Stone had rescued him -- despite the reek of whatever they'd given him to prevent him from shifting -- and carried him back up to the sky island for that long-awaited talk. And discovered something amazing.

A Raksura with no idea of what he was. A consort -- raised by a warrior! And that only through his fledgling years. A solitary since then, not by choice or by exile, just sheer terrible misfortune. It was not hard to guess what Moon's life had been like, to judge by his twitchiness and paranoia, his unwillingness to trust, his unease at the idea of a queen's control. And yet Moon was, despite all this, brave enough to challenge Stone, even while trapped in groundling form. Quick-witted enough to suspect that Stone wasn't telling him everything -- but circumspect enough to try and find the truth by watching and listening, rather than just demanding more words which might be lies. Stone resolved, then, to tell him the truth about anything that he asked. A fellow consort deserved that much.

And a fellow consort, even a solitary, deserved a chance at a better life. Whether he could turn that chance into something real, of course, would be up to him.

So Stone took the boy home.

***

It was hard not to pity him.

Stone had guessed, to judge by Moon's naked fear of control and coercion, that the boy had had a bad time of things. That there was a blatantly sexual element to his fear had been obvious, too. The groundling woman -- the one who'd asked him for children and then betrayed him -- had been only the beginning of it, though; not even Stone had guessed the truth. To be so lonely, so desperate and ignorant, as to seek out the Fell! Small wonder the boy was so standoffish.

And small wonder Pearl was making no headway with him, which gave Stone no end of bitter satisfaction. Pearl had always been high-handed. A fine trait in a queen, when tempered by wisdom and the willingness to listen to advice. Worse than useless without that. But while most consorts and male warriors liked a strong, commanding queen, it was clear that was precisely the wrong approach to take with Moon.

Stone watched the boy, in the few moments of lucidity he could muster between healing sleeps. (Damned kethel. He still had its foul taste in his mouth.) It was a comfort to have Moon nearby while he healed. The scent of another consort told his body the colony was well and safe, even if that wasn't true, and let him sleep more deeply, heal faster. But the despair on Moon's face in those moments, when he thought no one noticed -- that was hard to see. _I don't belong here,_ Stone remembered him saying on that first day. It was clear Moon had only come to believe that more deeply in the intervening weeks.

 _Stay, damn you,_ Stone thought at him, willing the boy to be stubborn again, this time for the right reasons. _We need each other._

As he fell asleep again, he could only hope that Moon would obey.

***

And finally, in spite of everything, Moon was just hard not to _like_.

Strong enough to match Pearl, despite his youth. Honest enough to win over Flower, hardworking enough to earn the other Arbora's respect. Brave enough to fight a war not his own, and canny enough to survive it. Could they have driven the Fell off, found the means to relocate and remain Indigo Cloud, without Moon? Most of the Aeriat wouldn't see it, but the Arbora, they knew. Stone could see it in their eyes. And what the Arbora wanted, the colony got.

Jade came to sit beside Stone one day, as he sunned himself on the main ship's deck. Stone watched her, noting the tense flicking of her spines, the smile she could not quite keep off her lips. Moon's scent was on her, still tainted with sickness, but already Jade's scales were taking on the more burnished, brighter coloring of a queen preparing herself to conceive a clutch. Stone wondered if Moon had noticed -- or if he even knew what it meant. Regardless, Jade, at least, had made her choice.

But she held up the token-bracelet so Stone could see it. "Think he'll say yes?"

Stone shrugged, trying not to smile. "He's kind of stupid when it comes to some things, Jade. You'd probably have better luck if you gave him something he actually cares about. One nice fat grasseater and he'll be yours forever."

She laughed, and he was pleased to see the tension flow out of her body. "Probably. He's easy to please, if nothing else. I like that about him." Her tail uncurled and flicked a little. "Was it like this for you?" She hesitated, then added, "With Azure?"

"No," Stone said. He kept his tone gentle, but final; some subjects were still off-limits. "It's different for everyone."

She didn't apologize, which pleased him. Good queens tested boundaries; that was right and proper. Only bad queens pushed beyond them.

"Not everyone will like your choice," Stone said, growing serious. "Pearl's a sore loser. And a lot of the Aeriat don't know him. Not that he's made that easy."

Jade shrugged. "Moon's worth a little extra effort. Let them work at it. And with him around, Pearl will have less trouble getting a consort of her own, if she really wants one." Her tail flicked again, harder than before. "I don't really care what anyone else thinks, anyway."

"That's my girl." Stone reached up to pet her wing frills, then decided to dare a little himself. "Nobody liked Azure's choice, either."

Jade turned to look at him for a moment, but then turned away again. "Line-grandfather."

"Hmm?"

"Tell me the truth." Another tail-flick. "The Arbora really didn't want some well-bred, useless, decorative consort from Star Aster. And River's right: we aren't so desperate that we'd take just any solitary. You _picked_ Moon, didn't you? Because he's so much like you."

Was that it? Stone blinked in surprise, then smiled to himself. "Could be more charming, maybe."

Jade shook her head. "I'm sure your influence will have an effect eventually." She got to her feet and stretched, long lean lines echoing Azure's heritage. It surprised Stone that he felt only pleasure, and for once no grief, at this thought.

Jade flew off, then, probably to herd Moon back to bed. The boy stupidly kept trying to walk around and prove to her that he was healthy enough for mating. Then again, Stone had done the same on more than one occasion. Azure had called his bluff once, and nearly eaten him alive --

 _He's so much like you._

Stone sighed, lying down to let the sun warm his aching bones, enjoying the chance to let someone else do the flying. Perhaps he would sleep here tonight.

One more chance to play the father, so long after his fertile years. One more fledgling to help fly. Azure had always said he seemed happiest when he had someone around who needed him.

***

And really, it was hard not to be pleased by that.


End file.
